Friday, July 28th, 2023

Starting mileage: 11,620, Distance travelled: 235

Miles walked: 4.75

We spent the morning visiting our last national park of the trip, but only from a train. We boarded the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway at the Akron-Northside station for a round-trip ride to Peninsula station, inside the park. Scenic was a massive overstatement and the most exciting thing we observed was the Akron sewer pipeline that was so big, they had driven a Model T through when it was built. Fortunately we were seated next to a lovely retired couple from Kansas who were just heading out on an 8-week trip like the one we had just completed so we had a very nice conversation with them. We also managed to get our national park passport stamp for one of the conductors in the cafe car and bought some scenic railway stickers too, so I guess that counts…

We still had some time to kill before meeting family for dinner so we decided to spend the afternoon at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, just a couple of towns over. We got lunch before at a fantastic Mexican place called Blue Habanero. David accidentally got served a huge bowl of black BEANS instead of GREENS due to a miscommunication between the waitress and the kitchen which we got a kick out of. The family enjoyed the Hall of Fame but we were underwhelmed given the cost of admission and what David had built up in his head after driving by it during college but never wanting to spent the money. David did enjoy getting a photo with the bust of his favorite New York Giant, Lawrence Taylor, who more than anyone turned him into an NFL fan. He also spent a stupid amount of money on a Taylor jersey that the sales clerk had to dig out of the warehouse.

Upon exiting the museum, we were desperate for coffee so wandered over to this massive new development behind it that was barely inhabited but looked promising but only found overpriced custom ice cream sandwiches that Brady and Laura were happy to partake of.

With still more time to kill, we drove to Canal Fulton, the town where we were meeting for dinner and went for a nice walk along the towpath of the Ohio & Erie Canal. David reminisced about the time he spent in the town when he was a young boy. We also got serenaded by a Meatloaf cover band that was warming up for an evening concert in the park.

We met David’s mom’s sisters, Linda and Sandy and Sandy’s daughter, Heidi for dinner at Canal Grille in Canal Fulton, OH. David was again really happy to reconnect with part of his family that he’d long been out of touch with. They reminisced about the summers spent visiting with his beloved grandparents and playing with his cousin Heidi. We once again failed to get photos, unfortunately. After dinner we drove about 3 hours to avoid spending the final day of our vacation entirely on the road. The kids were also anxious to return home to catch up with friends before turning around to get to sleep away camp on Sunday. We landed at a Best Western in Fredonia, NY just before midnight and crashed out pretty much immediately.